The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Microsoft Nigeria have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Innovation and adoption in the country.

The partnership will see both NITDA and Microsoft collaborate in ICT development, particularly in the areas of cloud policies, data protection and privacy laws and data classification frameworks.

NITDA mandate is to create a framework for the planning, research, development, standardization, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and regulation of Information Technology practices in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Government priorities include anti-corruption drive, security; private sector led economic growth and job creation, youth training and skills development. Technology will be at the heart of driving and building a digital economy which will bring these priorities to fruition.

Speaking on the collaboration, NITDA’s Director-General/CEO, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim, said the agency is delighted to collaborate with Microsoft, saying “as regulators, our mandate is to create the right policies that foster innovation and help build a robust digital economy.

Nigeria is a forward-thinking economy and one which is ready to compete in the 4th industrial revolution by having policies which drive growth and encourage investments.”

He further added: “This is a positive move towards digitalization of government processes and provides a tremendous opportunity to scale up citizen’s access to services and concurrently improve the quality of services.”

Also reiterating on the collaboration, General Manager Microsoft Nigeria, Akin Banuso said Microsoft is happy to collaborate with NITDA.

Banuso noted that Microsoft is committed to providing technology “you can trust; we have been actively involved in discussions with governments around the world to digitally transform are also frequently asked by other governments to identify best practices for moving to the cloud; we are honoured to be able to work with the Nigerian government on this framework.”

The Microsoft Nigeria boss said the collaboration aimed to foster detailed discussions of recent regulatory and policy development, including global best practices, to create cloud regulatory frameworks appropriate for driving innovation and improving how the public sector operates and delivers citizen services”

NITDA and Microsoft will set up a joint working group for the collaboration.